The Right to Get Married
I don’t want to sound heretical, but sometimes when trying to explain my viewpoint on controversial issues (which are almost always bolstered by my faith in Christ), I like to use empirical proofs or analytical evidence to support my claims. I do this knowing that people who do not believe Christ will also be involved in these issues and using the phrase “because the Bible says so” is not an aide to the progression of a debate with someone who doesn’t believe the Bible to be true. Now, I could give many evidences of the Bible’s reliability, but that’s not what I’m discussing at this moment. However, in this instance, I must go to the Bible because I don’t know where else I would go. Marriage did not begin with the state, but with God. Can you imagine the first marriage? No joint or separate bank accounts, no tax write-offs, or child credits, no rules for hospital visits (no hospitals for that matter) – just His command for man to leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and become one flesh. This misnomer of people’s “right to get married” is not based on what a God-given privilege marriage actually is (I use the word “privilege” purposefully), but on what people can get out of it for themselves.
Discrimination
This is where the final knot in the noose sits; a noose that threatens to strangle another piece of our country’s foundation: we are replacing an identity with a behavior lifestyle and calling it the same thing.
First off, to those who claim that homosexuality is an identity, I would present the numerous amounts of people who have gone from leading a gay lifestyle and are now not a part of it, and also vise versa. Did these people change the very core of who they were in order to do this? I would think African Americans don’t wake up one day and tell themselves, “You know, I think I’ll be Hispanic today.” Secondly, this comparison that is being made between the human rights movement for women and African Americans and gay marriage is simply appalling at best, and hateful at worst. The opponents of Proposition 8 claim that it is a step back in the civil rights movement and they couldn’t possibly imagine how we as a country could take back what many have worked so hard to overcome. Now, I’m not an African American and I’m not a woman, so I can’t even imagine what these two groups have had to endure to come to where they are today. But there are few things that I could think to be more hateful than to compare the senseless beating of a black man simply because he’s black to the “right” of a gay couple to get married because of the way they have chosen to live their life. This category mistake has got to come to an end to where we can make a true dichotomy between that which is innate and that which is behavior. Let us stop explaining away our own propensities to behave or behave otherwise as identity markers that cannot be changed or stopped.
I would like to point out two things as I close:
- We as humans are a unique people. We differentiate ourselves from every other being on earth by the way we think, rationalize, love, hate, seek revenge, plot, scheme, invent, create, explore, cry, care. However, we are also so different within ourselves. We look different, sound different, smell different and act different than anyone else ever has or will. We are completely unique from each other as individuals and I don’t think that it takes much to see this as a fact.
- We make choices every day. Some are good, some, not so good. In fact, I think I could make an argument for we as people being, at our cores, people of wrath and disorder (or sin) and not very good choice makers. Whether you look at a serial killer, a riot at after a World Cup soccer game (which, I have to say, is just ridiculous…it’s a soccer game!), or even a toddler left to his or her own devices, it’s not very hard to find some pretty good evidence in favor of this viewpoint.
So, when we combine our unique individuality with our propensity to sin, you can see how the ways in which we sin can become numerous to say the least. The thing about this is that God sees them all and He sees them all the same way, whether you’re talking about homosexual or heterosexual sin, or any sin for that matter. There are no favorites in His eyes, no thing that we can say or do to make Him see past the thick layer of corruption we all carry. Here on earth, our judgments are based on the degrees to which the law was broken and certain sins carry with them varying degrees of consequence. It is not hard to see the difference between the sting of a lie and the utter hatred and humiliation an adulterous relationship can bring. But God’s hand of judgment falls the same on all, and I write this knowing that my sin, the things I've done in public and in secret, should have buried me a thousand times over according to God’s standard. However, this same God lovingly provided the way out of the grime and the mire of my sin. All I did was take it; all I did was yield. And He offers this same thing to anyone who would do the same. This all may seem confusing, how a God could be loving, but also seem so harsh and unwavering. But, you see, that is His identity. It is impossible for Him to be anything else. James MacDonald, pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, I think, puts it correctly when he says that “God’s love is not a pampering love, but a perfecting love.” His love is offered now, but His judgment is eminent. So let us all consider how we define ourselves, not in light of anything that we think, but in light of what God has said, for He is the giver of our rights, the sustainer of our lives…the maker of our identities.
